Sharpen your axe, string your bow, brew your potions! Ancaria needs heroes like you. Grab your friends to join the resistance! The once peaceful land of Ancaria is in grave danger. The evil Ashen empire has enslaved its population and is using the orc-like Grimmoc to wipe out the Seraphim, who swore to protect it.

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About This Game

The once peaceful land of Ancaria is in grave danger. The evil Ashen empire has enslaved its population and is using the orc-like Grimmoc to wipe out the Seraphim, who swore to protect it. In order to defeat the empire you will have to prove yourself as a warrior by riding terrifying mounts, acquiring earth shattering skills and looting powerful weapons and valuable treasures. Grab your friends and join the resistance!

Key Features:

Battle it out with up to 3 player co-op

Take charge of 1 of 4 unique playable character classes with their own set of skills

I have this constant internal debate over whether certain games can be considered beatemups or hack&slashes. Both genres use the "belt-scroller" style of level design, both have the standard "move forward, kill enemies, repeat", but there are numerous subtle yet key differences that set them apart. Usually the simple answer is that everyone has weapons in hack & slashers (Konami's TMNT arcade games, Castle Crashers, etc), but uh...hmm. Capcom's Arcade D&D games feature characters with weapons, and I consider that a beatemup. On the other hand, t...

Wait...What? Uh...let's just get on with the review.

Sacred Citadel is a videogame. You kill things, acquire stuff, and complete challenges. I don't recommend this game, but it isn't bad. Out of 10 I'd give it a 4.1. By IGN's standards that might mean SC is a terrible, horrible, no good pile of etc, but eh I think it's ok. The plot is traditional fantasy fare. Big Momma is causing trouble, some mysterious person is seeking artifacts, and there's a bunch of monsters that need a good killin'. I imagine fans of the Sacred series will have a better understanding of what's going on. I played through Sacred 2 on the Xbox 360, but I lost track of the story in the middle of thousands of quests, billions of items, and hundreds of lands/dungeons/universes.

There are four classes to choose from (Warrior, Ranger, Shaman, Mage).After deciding on your class (which IMO doesn't make a huge difference) you'll set out on a journey through 4 acts with 5 stages apiece. The level-designs are very traditional, but this game mixes it up a bit with mounts, falling objects, and even a little platforming.

The monsters typically consist of um...Grimmocs? Bedellers? Digestya? Covinters? I think I'm just making words up. There are "orcs" with spears, "mutant tribals" with swords, "robots" with shield-thingies, and you get the idea I hope. Whatever they're actually called is irrelevant, because they're mostly fodder for you to make disgusting paste out of. I play a lot of arcade beatemups (& hack & slashers). These tend to be really difficult. The odds aren't fair in the slightest, you get 2 or 3 lives, and enemies can do a lot of damage. Sacred Citadel is pretty much the exact opposite.

This isn't an easy game just because it has RPG elements. One of the standard tactics in a belt-scroller is "herding". You move around to manipulate the enemies, so that they crowd up together. When enemies separate, they tend to surround you, mess up your attacks, and generally ruin your day. It's like some awkward dance with occasional punching. It definitely pays off if you know what you're doing. With SC...all you have to do to herd enemies is X X X Y. This sends them flying to the corner of the screen. Aftwards you can just press X X X and X X X and X X X and you get where I'm going with this? Decisions in this game tend to consist of:

"Do I press X X X down Y and stun them?""Do I press X X up Y and juggle them?""Do I just press whatever because it doesn't really matter?"

It's nice having RPG elements, it's nice having many attack options, but there's no incentive to doing well because there's no challenge. Even if you choose a supposedly squishy class like the Shaman, you can still take lots of damage, healing items are prevalant, and you can even keep a few healing potions for emergencies. It's not uncommon to play through this game for the first time, and never die. The only aspect where you are liable to fail involves the stage rankings, book-keeper challenges, and certain "don't get hit by XXXX" achievements. All this other stuff really amounts to is a grind, since it requires playing through every stage a handful of times.

Still, while it eventually becomes a boredom-inducing ordeal, Sacred Citadel can be a satisfying in terms of leveling-up, acquiring loot, and gutting monsters by the dozen. If you expect anything more; like a challenge, or some truly compelling game-design, you're bound to be disappointed.

- Playing alone is boring so find someone to play with- Leveling can be tedious- The story is nothing blowing ( typical hero story )

Thought:

The game is great if you ever felt bored and want to play something fun well this is what you are looking for but i highly suggest that you look for someone to play with and this game online match making is great so you will not be bored.

A really great beat 'em up with pretty smooth graphics. The gameplay feels good-ok, artwork and music are beautiful.

The only thing that could've been better, is that the equipment as it is mostly 2 or 3 drops (one of each type -mace,axe,etc...-) that fit the character per 2-3 levels, which feels like there aren't many options to choose from. In addition I didn't really understand why you can't have 2 same 1h weapons equiped both at a time.

Combat mechanics are enjoyable and also is the idea of having potions, which can really make a differense.

I totally recommend this game, and even more if you are going to play it in co-op mode.Have fun.

Old/Mid school Style Beat-em Up. Kind of a Capcom Dungeon and Dragons arcade game mashed up with Golden Axe and some Final Fight sprinkled on top, with a great art style.

There are 4 diffrent classes, about 5 diffrent combos/moves to unlock per class, juggle, gound and pound, knockbacks, behind the back attack, elemental weapons, armors, mounts to ride, lots of baddies, and some epic bosses.

It can be a bit botton mashy (like all early to mid 90's beat-em ups) and to make yer class a badass you will have to grind some, it's a fun grind tho. They give you diffrent tasks to complete: no dieing, time limit, and score when you replay levels.

I started playing as a warrior alone, but after act 1 I wanted to try co-op with a friend. I tried hunter and he played as warrior and to be honest the game became way more interesting since in two it seems better, more control and well less dying :P

The story is simple, a bad guy is looking for some artefacts that will look like some strange statues and at the end of an act... well he gets them both :) The last act is the battle to stop him destroy the citadel, while the DLC is a different chapter, no idea yet, but I'll buy it for sure :)

The control is simple, easy to remap but since I am not the biggest fan of console control ideas.... well I don't really like the combos and such or the itemization or the management of gear and such but with a friend I managed to finish it and get some nice achievements in the mean time. I can't say that is a bad game just because I don't like the combos idea but the control system seems slower like the one on consoles. The keyboard should be 10-20 times faster than a gamepad but since the game was designed for the slower "minded" people playing on consoles well the control interface will always lag behind the keyboard speed.

Except that, the acts are small, fast places, the mobs are a little too powerfull but managable, while playing in two or more is way better and way more interesting. The game is simple, kill stuff, get some money (way too few for the mobs you kill but well...), buy some gear if you can and do challanges, while focus on dieing as little as possible :P

It takes around 6 hours to finish the four acts but that doesn't mean that you'll get to level 40 (the max level) since at the end of act IV you'll be at best level 35, or at least that was the case for me. How to get from 35 to 40.... well no idea yet.

Remember that this game is a arcade scroller with some RPG parts but with combos and a small number of potions to use, so playing it should be quite easy and enjoyable. Try it alone, try it with friends, I think the 2nd choice will be way better thou :P

There are RPG elements with leveling up and distributing points to abilities. Or gain new gear by defeating enemies or purchasing them.

This game feels right at home for me, the story is kind of immature, but I didn't expect more than a reason to go to the right and kill things. It isn't like Golden Axe had a major driving storyline, we just want to push buttons and see bad guys die.

And the satisfaction of earning new levels to your magic is still just as nice.

I think people complaining, were just looking for something deeper. This is right next to Golden Axe, Legend, Knights of the Round, etc.

If any of those names hit home for you, score it on sale. I can't speak for online play, but for 4-player local co-op, this is a good time.

A sidewise beat-em-up game is rarely seen today at least with polished execution like this. Unfortunately the multiplayer component did not work correctly for me with one side showing that the opposite player was no longer playing etc. The game itself has quite a bit of charm and reminds me of castle crashers - unfortunately not the most exciting game in single player. I could go back and revisit this game one day if I feel up for it so I would recommend it to fans of the genre

If you're a fan of old sidescrolling action packed games with some humour, then Sacred Citadel is the game for you.Along with it's decent graphics and effects for its genre, the soundtrack is on point and enjoyable as well as the combo's you can perform. The levels aren't terribly challenging and you can finish the game solo, so I recommend you accept the challenges in the towns before each level.I've yet to play in co-op (both local and online) because not a lot of people have this game yet. So buy it, have a gander at each of the classes, run through the game with your favourite one, and then finally meet me in online rooms.Coles approved.

I played this with my girlfriend (who likes classic beat-em-ups such as Streets of Rage 2) and after Act 1's boss we said, "Ok let's keep playing!"

But as we played, our enthusiasm kept dropping slowly. There wasn't really much to the game. There are only 4 acts and our characters became so over-powered by the end of the game that we just wanted to get it over with. We didn't even use the special, power enhancing crystals once.

- Graphics are nice but sometimes I lost my character in some chaotic battles. The Act 1 boss was the only unique fight in the entire game (except MAYBE the last boss, but that's pushing it).- Music was fine (some of it sounding like Golden Axe at times)- Sound needed more "umph" to make me feel like my hits were doing any damage. The sound could have helped make the game more exciting if they put more effort into it.- Controls were easy but the game can be beaten with one simple attack combo for the entire time and then the "special move" saved for boss fights.

As of this writing the game sells for $15 (before sale discounts) and I'd have to say I'd pay at most half that price for Sacred Citadel if you have run out of beat=em-ups to play.

Okay so where should I start..Let's start with the negative stuff cause that's usually what people look at anyway.The game has a few flaws that I cannot get over:-Depth Perception Issues. Not only is it often so, that you're being attacked by enemies that you cannot attack because you're not in the same depth, but it's also hard to tell which depth they're in at all, leading to some frustration from time to time. Also some items might sometimes drop in a depth that you cannot even reach.-It's not hard. Now you might say this is very relative, but for me, these kinds of games is about growing in power, since you level and acquire new gear, so that you may overcome harder challenges. This point is especially important since your experience & gold is saved, even if you die, so you can just keep doing the same thing til' you get past it. Sure, you might die here there once or twice, but we beat every level in the first try and overall found the game to be too easy. Even on the last boss we made it without grinding a single level twice and we didn't even dodge most of his attacks.-The game is very short. A little over 5 hours of gameplay was enough to beat the entire game with one class, and that's taking into account idling in the menu probably about 30 minutes and restarting it due to bugs like being unable to move or even just crashes. -Tanky monsters. When I'm saying that I'm not talking about the bosses, the bosses are fine. But this is something I see very often in games. Instead of making the monsters challenging enough, you make them very tanky, so that it'll still take time to take them down. It's not fun, it's just repetitive and tedious.-Constant knockback. You're constantly being knockbacked, there's really nothing to explain here, you'll spend at least about 30% of your time in combat lying on the ground.

Those are the main points for me that are bad. But here's the good ones.-Story. It's definitely not that great of a story, but it's somewhat humorous and you want to find out what happens, so I have no complaints, the story did what it was supposed to do, it made me want to play on.-Gear, I felt the excitement for getting a better weapon/armor. That's at least more than what many other games do.-Pretty fun multiplayer. Since you're constantly getting knockbacked, mashing buttons, filling up the screen with you power attacks or getting thrown around and ending up in bad positions, it's pretty fun to play co-op in it. As always it's more fun to play with friends.-Music. The music was not that kind of music that got stuck in your head or something you'll sing/dig along to, but it was decent, and I have no complaints about it either. -Graphics. The graphic design is nice and overall I enjoyed going through the world, especially paying attention to the background scenery at times.

Overall I must say this is a pretty mediocre game from a game design perspective, but it was decent entertainment for the 5 hours I played it. Do I consider it to be worth 10 euros though? No.

I picked this game up as a bonus as part of a humble bundle, it's a updated Golden Axe clone at heart. It's pretty short, I blasted through it in about 3-4 hours, it's challenging at the start before you get some better moves and gear - and the last boss is pretty challenging - but otherwise it wasn't particularly hard. The keyboard controls are pretty awful, without a XBox controller I'd steer well clear of this.

One bug to mention, if you do want to play with a controller - don't touch your keyboard before you press a button on the controller - otherwise you won't be able to use the controller.

Sacred Citadel trys to pluck every single mechanics from the classic side-scrolling fighters that may have played and loved: Golden Axe, Double Dragon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and tries to intertwines these mechanics with fun and exciting RPG elements in a simple yet elegant visual style more suitable to modern day. On the side note im not going to blabber your head off for this indie game review and I'll just list some cons n pros.

Cons:Online Co-Op Needs WorkWas only able to play with my friends not entirely sure if it was because nobody plays this anymoreDull Orc EnemiesCombat may get stale after you learn the stun combo

Sumary:Would i reccommend the game YES, BUT not at this price..maybe 5$ or so based on how much content was put into it.IF you like easy achievments % then by all means this is the game for you if you dont mind spending some dinero for the DLC to reach max level.

This is a long review, so if you just want a small scope of information I would recommend skipping to the Result section and reading from there.

Southend Interactive develops Sacred Citadel, a rather riveting game that can best be described as a side scroller beat’em up action adventure. This essentially falls in the same category as Castle Crashers; although, Sacred Citadel loses on the comedy it picks up on the graphics.

The Game:Sacred Citadel is about the far away land of Ancaria, which is under attack by the evil Ashen Empire. You play a random soldier (Warrior, Ranger, Mage, or Shaman) with each class uses different techniques in order to defeat the many enemies ahead. Mama Grimmoc, the evil orc mother, is attacking the civilizations which you have become accustomed to. As such you decide to take up your weapon to stop her. You eventually realize Mama Grimmoc is working for a mysterious man, The Merchant, who requires her to retrieve him two artifacts. Upon realizing their value you decide to take it upon yourself to obtain one of the artifacts in order to gain the huge reward The Merchant has promised you for them. The campaign involves fighting off hordes of orcs, bandits, soldiers, monsters and more. As your adventure goes on you must fight your way through four acts totaling twenty levels. Each act contains four levels and a boss fight. You must fight your way through each boss in order to progress to the next act each of the bosses require you to use different strategies. The bosses are Mossback, Mama Grimmoc, Queen Digestya, and Gatebreaker.

Gameplay:The There are only forty levels, which mean you cannot max a character out in every single attribute, but instead must divide them up appropriately. Luckily as you’ll quickly realize, you don’t need to put any points in defense in order to complete the campaign. The game itself is relatively easy and I believe I only died twice through the entire campaign, one time because I forgot to use my potion and the other time because I couldn’t figure out how to defeat the Gatebreaker. The game doesn’t get more difficult as you progress. The game just gets easier because you figure out how to play better. You don’t need to spend any of the games money; in fact I beat the entire game without spending a single coin. But if you don’t mind playing easy games and just want to hack ‘n slash then this is a really good choice.

Multiplayer:Most of the negative reviews focus on the server instability and glitches associated with the multiplayer. Well I never played the multiplayer, so I cannot tell you how that goes. If the other reviews are correct then I would highly recommend avoiding this game if you are looking for a multiplayer co-op experience. On the other hand, if you just want to play a fun little campaign that doesn’t pose much of a challenge then this is a great choice.

Jungle Hunt (DLC):Act Five is added to the campaign and finally you can defeat the monsters that began the whole war. Mother Grimmoc has run the jungle and you must go in to retrieve the artifact she stole at the end of the original campaign. The campaign adds an additional five levels which push you to the metal as you fight off new, but similar enemies. They are all essentially stronger versions of past enemies, and in fact one boss is just a larger version of one of the orcs you fight. The game is intense and adds new weapons, but sadly doesn’t add a new village. This means you have to earn the weapons by playing the levels rather than just purchasing them.

Result:If you enjoy hack and slack side scrollers then this is the game for you. I would recommend getting this game if you enjoy a single player campaign and don't really care to venture into multiplayer. In all honesty there seems no point to multiplayer as this campaign is so easy with one person adding three more would make the game a cakewalk. Although based on other reviews if you are looking for a four player co-op experience this may not be the game for you. Sacred Citadel offers fun combat, rather interesting enemies, and mixes hack 'n slash combat systems with platformer mechanics. The game is riviting to play by yourself and if you can get it for a good deal it's definitely worth the buy.

Pros:+Easy to master combat with few combinations to memorize+Lots of loot and weapons that can easily be obtained throughout the story mode.+Interesting item add-ons that allow you to boost the power of your character beyond your maximum attribute points+Easy, but fun campaign that allows for a single person to enjoy the adventure.+Missions challenges that add replay value for already completed missions+Easy to use controls+They have added DLC to the game.

Cons:-No mouse functionality (I set my mouse to preform keyboard functions so I could use my mouse and keyboard)-Does not support 1080p resolution (I just played in windowed mode)-Apparently the multiplayer did not function well (I have no experience on this)-The campaign was relatively short-There is no way to increase the difficulty